Saint Benedict's Feast Day Homily
So today we honor Saint Benedicts passage from this world into eternity after a long life dedicated to God. What was he looking for? The answer I think lies pretty clearly in his rule. At the end of the prologue he sums up the whole purpose for his way of life. He says that if we follow this way of life that there will come a point when we run with unspeakable delight in the way of Gods commandments. The purpose of monastic life is joy. Joy in this life, because it empowers a person to live a certain kind of way that opens the heart up to the unspeakable delight of Gods love. Thats the purpose of our life. And Saint Benedict makes very clear that that purpose relies on 3 fundamental things. And he makes that clear in the first chapter of his rule when he says that we are the tyoe of monks who live in a monastery under a rule and an abbot. Each of those 3 things reflects 1 of the 3 vows that we take as monks. We live in a monastery, which means we live in community, which reflects the vow of stability. That when we enter this monastery, we promise to be part of this community until we die. And that affords us 2 great things, a great blessing and a great challenge.
The blessing is the support of many brothers so that every morning when I think, "Oh I dont want to get up", I think about my brothers who are going to get up, and who need me to be with them. When I face a great trial in my personal life or in the life of the community, again I know that I have a whole community of brothers who will be there for me to support me. Thats the great blessing of community life.
The great challenge is of course, the brothers. Because they dont always act the way I want them to. And in living with one another we are tested in our capacity for fraternal charity. As Saint Benedict says at the end of his rule, "Through patience we bear the sufferings of Christ so as to recieve his glory by enduring with the greatest patience one anothers weaknesses of body and behavioir." And believe me there are plenty of times when we need to do that. But thats the grist of the mill that forms us into saints. Because its only when things are challenging that we can grow in our capacity for genuine fraternal charity. Thats what living in a monasterys all about.
Saint Benedict went on to say in the first chapter of his rule that we live under a rule, and that is our vow of Conversatio Morem. We make a pledge before God to live according to the monastic way which involves all sorts of things including common ownership, the renunciation of goods, the and the renunciation of family. But above all else as saint benedict makes very clear in his rule it means to prefer nothing whatsoever to the work of God. To live as a monk is to live constatntly in an environment of worship. We are called as monks to worship day in and day, out hour after hour. Because worship is what a human being is meant for. It is in our worship of God that we most fully conform to what we were called to be by God in the begining as his beloved creatures. Because you cant put yourself before God if you are worshiping him. And so Benedict understood that we needed constantly to be reminded of our creaturehood before God, and of his love and grace for us by the act of worship. So nothing is to be prefferred to the Divine Office. To the prayer of the church that we make hour after hour, day after day.
The third component as he says in his opening chapter of the rule is to live under an abbot which corresponds to our vow of obedience. Because Saint Benedict understood so clearly that obedience is a key component, perhaps the key component for a human being to enter more deeply into a state of sanctity. Not because its efficient and it makes life better for the group. But because it is the key way that we all enter into the obedience of Christ to his Father. And thus any time we act submitting ourselves to in obedience to those to whom we owe it, we enter into a deeply spiritual communion with Christ himself. Whether that be in the monastery, in the sacrament of marriage, or in everyday life. True spiritual obedience is a sacramental encounter with christ himself who became obedient even unto death. So the monastic life that Saint Benedict presents for us that he lived so powerfully all his life, is a supremely powerful means for any and every ordinary christian to enter deeply into the spiritual journey that will lead to the kingdom of God. Whether you are a professed Benedictine or not, each in your own way can adopt these fundamental practices and make your own life in its own way monastic. And in that you can share in this charism that our holy father Benedict bestowed upon us and on the whole world. May we ask his intercession today for ourselves, for this monastic community, and for all those who through the grace of God are part of our abbey family.